The Boston Red Sox (finally) are showing life, completing a three-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park this week before embarking on a seven-game road trip that includes dates with the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles.
But it’s still been a disappointing 2019 season for the defending World Series champions, who won 108 regular-season games in 2018 en route to their fourth title since the 2004 campaign.
Dan Szymborski, who writes for FanGraphs, identified “one quick fix” for all 30 Major League Baseball teams in an article published Thursday on ESPN.com. The proposed moves took into consideration each team’s 2019 goals, don’t overlap and aren’t too unrealistic, according to Szymborski.
The Red Sox have had several issues this season, with spotty starting pitching chief among them. But Szymborski still sees the bullpen as a weakness and therefore in need of fixing.
Here’s what Szymborski wrote:
I hate to play my Craig Kimbrel card so early, but a return always seemed logical — likely for both parties. Boston’s bullpen did not seem deep enough that it could afford to shed both Kimbrel and Joe Kelly without any kind of replacement. The Red Sox are also the team that can best afford Kimbrel now, since Boston is well past the point of trying to reset the luxury tax.
Boston’s bullpen hasn’t been that bad relative to expectations of the unit’s demise post-Kimbrel. But it’s clear the Red Sox’s relief corps would look far more formidable with Kimbrel at the back end.
The problem is it would require a sizable financial committment from the Red Sox to bring back the All-Star closer, especially when you consider the luxury tax implications for making such a move.
